On H List of Movie Reviews
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The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
4/25
4/25:
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle finished in the top ten at the box office because of the premise.
I think people wanted to see another Sleeping with the Enemy.
During the same year, Single White Female came along in eight months.
Of these three films, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle is the weakest and is a slow
nonthriller. It's impossible for me to be emotionally invested in an upper-middle-class white family.
The immediate connection of the nanny to the backstory at the beginning is a mistake. So is the
mentally disabled black male who'll set up the most predictable plot twist in movie history by coming back
to help out the white family despite being fired. I laughed when the useless husband said that he's okay but
his legs were broken after being hit in the head and falling down the stairs. Of course, the long-term goal of
the glasshouse is to kill somebody with all of that glass from above.
I don't like Annabella Sciorra as the somewhat standoffish wife who's oblivious of how good she has it, but
her performance is fine, painting a realistic portrayal of somebody with serious asthma issues. While the
bad things were happening, I asked, "When did they start? And was life normal until the nanny showed
up?" Eventually, the wife processed it. But is spending time on the glasshouse really more important
than her newborn baby? She's stupid anyway.
Rebecca De Mornay is bland for a villain. Madeline "Aren't I Darned Cute When I Make Faces Like That?"
Zima is annoying. Ernie Hudson is never believable by playing his character with some
intelligence. Matt McCoy is a familiar face if you take off his beard as he was Lloyd Braun in
Seinfeld. For once, Julianne Moore isn't annoying. The photography
is nice, but the lighting is, for some reason, darker than it should be.
All in all, Curtis Hanson is the Master of Predictable.